How often do you purposely unplug? We often spend hours on end checking our Facebook timelines, twitter feeds and Instagram updates and before you know it 2 or more hours have passed. For me, I only really know that time has flown by when I realize that my battery is dying. At times, I literally have to be forced to move onto other things and take a break.
I’ve gotta say, the way my mind works, it’s always running a million miles per second and it doesn’t take much for me to be distracted and find my way onto the next thing. So going into the last week of July 2015, after monitoring my to-do list and trying to stay current on ALL of my social media networks AND trying to give into the world by liking and commenting on other people’s posts, making sure I wasn’t missing any birthdays and overall just being an active participant in the social media world, it seemed like I was constantly doing all of this at once! I was working relentlessly as I juggled my YouTube channel, my personal Facebook timeline, Humble Sunshine Facebook page, Twitter timeline, keeping up with my one or two posts a day on Instagram while being falling into the trance of the topic or hashtag of the day.
I became more occupied with all of the social stuff that I would discover and Instead of feeling “caught up” and up to date with some things, I began to feel like I was more out of touch than anything. I spent more time thinking of ideas and what my next blog posts would be, rather than just sitting down, calming my mind and just writing one.
I had found myself extremely exhausted and I didn’t even feel like I had done hardly anything or as much as I could in a matter of weeks. So on Monday July 27th I woke up and decided to put calm to my mind, slow down and put ME first so that I could begin to put everything in line.
I decided that I would not be a slave to the to-do list that I consistently deviated from anyway and I would allow everything to flow. I would stay away from all of my social media networks as much as possible and if I couldn’t stay away completely I made sure that I didn’t trip into making them a priority by accident.
The first thing that I made sure I made a routine again, was my daily meditation practice. Meditation is something that has helped clear my mind and gain a clearer focus so that I can approach everyday with a new, positive perspective. It was no different from before, because after a few days of consistent practice, the fog began to clear out of my mind. and my anxiety started to lessen. Since then I’ve decided that only, when I could get back in alignment with what GOD wants for me and just living in the moment, rather than being caught up and stressed by things that didn’t matter, could I find a peace and calm within to move out of my depressive state.
Now, I don’t have it all figured out, but I’m well on my way. I have a clearer mind and I’m able to, along with being immersed in a daily gratitude practice, where I constantly focus on the things for which I’m grateful for and the brighter side of all situations. It all started by unplugging for a bit.
From my experience, unplugging and taking a break from social media can do wonders for increasing your quality of life and can help decrease stress. I would HIGHLY suggest it.
Have you ever practiced a social media fast? If even for a day or week or longer did you feel a difference in how you viewed the world or yourself? What was your experience like?
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